Stellar in Infinity
by BittersweetSonata
Summary: Once upon a time, a star fell in love with a dragon.


**full summary: AU, **Lucy Heartfilia is the princess of the Celestial Spirit World, and heir to the throne. But out of jealousy, another noble sends her crashing to Earthland - where she meets a dragon: Natsu Dragneel. Now she's traveling the country of Fiore with said dragon - who is actually a dragon-_slayer _(go figure) - and his flying blue cat and helping people.

**genres: **Fantasy, adventure, romance, friendship, and probably a few others I'm forgetting.

** notes: **I had this idea, and I thought it was cool. Basically, it'll be kind of like a book of fairy tales that are all linked together. You know, NaLu (which is the main pairing for this story, but that doesn't mean I can't throw in some side pairings too), Gruvia, Jerza, GaLe, RoWen, and maybe some others.

**disclaimer: **I don't know which I'd rather own: Fairy Tail, Castle, or Sherlock. But I obviously don't own any of them.

**other****: **Go on, fuel your fire.

* * *

**I. The Fall **

_{Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket} _

What are stars?

It seems like a simple enough question, but actually, there's a lot more to it than you'd think. You might give me some answers to that 'simple' question. Like the stars are the bright lights you see at night. The beautiful beings that form constellations. The sun is a star. There are many types of stars, red giants, white dwarfs, nebulas, etc. But that's getting a bit too technical.

Science says that stars are large balls of burning gas.

While that may be true, I'm going to tell you a story.

About a star who fell in love with a dragon.

* * *

Once upon a time, there was a princess who lived in the Celestial Spirit World. It was a place unmapped by cartographers and untouched by war.

The Celestial Spirit World was a beautiful place. Unlike the human world, the sky was always dark, but at the same time, illuminated with millions of shining stars. The buildings – including the castle – were grand but would be considered strange to the human eye.

The inhabitants of the celestial world were equally as beautiful but would still be considered odd. Most were extremely handsome or beautiful, but some were animals. And if any outsider to see a large cow walking around in a speedo on two legs, they definitely wouldn't consider it 'normal.'

The people of the magical world wore peculiar but exquisite clothing. Diamonds, rubies, emeralds, opals, and many other precious jewels were common on _everyone's _clothing. No one was poor, and no one ever went hungry because of the laws and rules, not to mention the just king that ruled over them.

The people of the realm were celestial spirits, unique beings made of magic and the stars. In fact, to the humans on Earthland, they were only groups of stars that made up patterns in the sky. They were charted and named, and some even made up fables and stories about them, but they were never considered to be _alive. _

Since it was a realm accessible only by the celestial spirits, no one knew about what went on inside. It was a place made of magic, dreams, and the stars.

And one teenage girl was the heir to it all.

The problem was, she didn't _want _it.

A blonde girl of seventeen tiptoed down the long hallway. It hadn't seem this never-ending before, but she hadn't been trying to sneak back in before. Into a castle, in the dark, at night, without waking anyone.

It wasn't as easy as she'd expected.

Especially since she was the princess and heir to the throne.

Then it was _really _difficult.

The girl smiles to herself as she glanced back at her entrance point – one of the even spaces between two of the pillars holding up the roof of the hallway. Sure she'd had to practically scale one story of the castle, and then heave herself over the side, but she'd managed it. Not without difficulty though, she wasn't an acrobat or assassin.

As if.

Of course, she _was _the one who'd snuck out of the castle in the first place. It wasn't her fault that she couldn't just go out and be herself – that'd be the king's, thank you very much. All she wanted was for people to see her for herself, and not just as the princess and heir to the throne of the Celestial Spirit World.

She rolled her eyes as she thought of all the others calling her 'princess.' She'd told them not to plenty of times, but they hadn't ever listened and insisted on calling her something she wished she wasn't. And since she was the princess, that meant guards 'for her own personal safety' as the king put it.

And of course she'd end up with the most perverted one.

She smirked to herself as she remembered how she'd eluded Taurus earlier.

Sneaking out through her balcony and through the gardens. Ha, take that, perverted cow.

Her smirk relaxed into a smile as she thought of the celestial spirit. Taurus the Bull, while he may have been perverted and crude at times, was a good friend. In truth, she was friends with all the celestial spirits, even those that weren't in the Zodiac like Taurus.

Her chocolate-colored eyes traveled downward to the small white snowman wobbling along beside her. Actually, he wasn't a snowman, but a Nikola – The Little Dog – and she had named him Plue. She was thankful for a faithful companion who would sneak out with her at night, even though he couldn't do much to protect her.

That was what her celestial whip was for.

Her lips curled upward as she noticed they were nearing the turn that led to her room. Although suite was more like it. She felt relief flood through her, as she'd felt tense ever since they'd infiltrated the castle. She was about to turn when something stopped her.

Or rather, someone.

"What are _you _doing out here?"

Lucy froze and turned to fully face the figure. Angel crossed her arms and sneered at her, her indigo eyes narrow. The blonde instantly became defensive.

"Well what are _you _doing here?" she shot back, her smile turning into a frown.

The silver-haired young woman scoffed and tossed her head. "I heard a noise and came out to see what it was."

The blonde narrowed her eyes. "You don't even _live _here."

Angel threw her a hateful look. "Well you shouldn't either. If you really must know, I'm here on business."

Lucy raised a perfect golden brow. "And what kind of business would you have here?"

"You think you're untouchable, don't you?" the other woman jeered, scowling. "You think because you live in a castle that you're above everyone else, isn't that right? Just because you're the princess and directly in line for the throne."

Lucy blinked a few times, undeterred. Angel had always been like this. "I'm not better than anyone else, and who says I even _want _to live in this place?" she questioned, throwing her arms out and gesturing around. "Besides," the blonde rolled her eyes, "you're next in line behind me, so I don't see what the big deal is. And you didn't answer my question."

Angel stepped closer, a cruel smile playing on her lips. "Well what about it, _princess_? Would you like to live in a world where you're not royalty? Where you don't have to worry about sneaking out late at night without being seen? Where you're not next in line for the throne?"

As she talked, Angel kept advancing, causing Lucy to take a few steps backward each time.

"Wouldn't you, _princess_? Isn't that what you want? Isn't it?" the blonde cringed when Angel called her 'princess', spitting the word out like it was poison.

"I want what you have, _princess_. I _want _to be queen. I _want _to live here. I _want _to rule. I've always wanted that, and I almost had it too. But then you came along and ruined _everything. I _was supposed to be queen, not you!" the woman shrieked, and Lucy's eyes widened in alarm when her back hit the marble railing.

"If you don't _want _it, _princess_, then I'll just _take _it from you." Angel finished with a cold sneer.

"Wha-," Lucy's voice was cut off when Angel shoved her harshly over the side of the balcony-like hallway along the outside of the castle. As she toppled over, she heard the other girl mutter something like an incantation, but she didn't catch it.

A bloodcurdling scream ripped from the blonde's throat as she fell. The chilling sound echoed through the Celestial World, waking its inhabitants. Angel watched with a cruel smile as the girl plummeted toward the ground, hundreds of feet down. Only, she knew that the blonde wasn't going to stop falling when she hit the ground like she normally would.

The girl would fall until she reached Earthland, where she would spend the rest of her days as nothing but a measly human. And where she would die.

In the Celestial Spirit World, you didn't die. Even if you were mortally injured in the outside world, you could return to the celestial realm and heal. But if you were unable to return for some reason, then you would die in the outside world.

In the celestial realm, she didn't technically _age_ per say, it was basically just a way of keeping track of how old someone _would be _in the human world. And in the human world, she would eventually die of old age if nothing else.

Angel felt a sense of satisfaction as she watched the blonde dissolve into thousands of shimmering lights, her scream still lingering about the air. She could hear the curious and worried people coming, and she knew she had to hurry. But she waited until the lights had faded away – presumably the girl was falling to Earthland about now – before she put on her act.

As the Celestial Spirit King and some of the Zodiacs came rushing toward her, Angel faked distress.

"What was that?" Loke, the spirit of Leo the Lion, demanded. "Did you scream?"

"I don't care who it was, just find them!" yelled the ever temperamental Aquarius the Water-Bearer. "When I get my hands on that…" she trailed off, muttering the rest to herself.

Aries nervously twiddled her fingers. "T-they sounded distressed, a-and it sounded a lot like Lucy."

Loke immediately turned to her with an intense expression, and the spirit squeaked. "I-I'm sorry!"

"It _did _sound a lot like that good-for-nothing girl." Aquarius mumbled, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

"Miss Loo-cy is missing!" yelled Taurus as he came barreling from down one of the corridors. "She's not in her roo-oom!"

Loke turned to Angel, suspicion rising within him. "Did you see Lucy?"

She gave a very convincing look of distress. "The princess? No, I haven't seen her. I just heard the scream and came out to see if I could find who it was. However, when I got here, they were gone."

"Find her at once." the king ordered, and the spirits scattered.

Loke gave the silver-haired woman one last look of suspicion before taking Aries' arm and leading her away.

When they had dispersed, Angel turned back to where the girl had fallen, her dark smile returning. They wouldn't be finding the princess in the celestial realm, if they did indeed ever find her at all. Her face darkened as she thought of Lucy returning and telling everyone about what had happened. She would be exiled from the spirit world forever, at the very least, if anyone ever found out what she had done.

However, it wasn't very likely that they would ever find the missing princess. She was far away, in the human world, and she couldn't get back. Angel had counted on the fact that Lucy wasn't a celestial spirit, because if she had been, the blonde could have easily returned by now.

But Lucy wasn't a spirit, and she couldn't return by herself if at all. Angel wasn't too sure about that part of the rune she had used to banish Lucy, but it didn't matter so long as she was gone. The only drawback was that since Lucy wasn't a celestial spirit – rather, she was a _holder _of celestial spirits, much like Angel herself – she wouldn't die due to overexposure to the human world. That was the thing about celestial spirits, they couldn't be out for a long length of time in the human world.

However, Angel was quite happy with herself despite that fact. There hadn't been any witnesses to her crime, so no one knew what she'd done to Lucy. Although that stupid Lion had seemed suspicious, he couldn't prove what she'd done.

No witnesses.

But what about that Nikola Lucy always had with her?

Angel began to frantically search for the little dog, only he was nowhere to be found. She leaned over the railing and looked down to the ground.

There, lying innocently in the crimson-colored grass, was a lollipop. She stared at it, wide-eyed for a few minutes before she realized that Plue had been holding it when she'd confronted Lucy.

And then it hit her.

She had sent that thing along with Lucy to the human world.

She pulled back and straightened her dress. Oh well, not her problem. At least she'd gotten rid of her only witness. But Plue was a celestial spirit, and so Plue could technically return to the spirit world at some point, couldn't he?

She shrugged and decided not to worry about it for the time being. Angel cast one last glance toward where the girl and Nikola had disappeared before walking off.

"Goodbye, Lucy Heartfilia."

* * *

Meanwhile, the very same Lucy Heartfilia's eyelids were fluttering as something warm prodded her awake.

And whatever it was _wouldn't stop. _

"Hey, are you alright?"

Oh, and it was talking now.

She couldn't deny it had a nice voice, deep and rich but boyish, but it was one she didn't recognize.

"Hey, wake up."

More poking and prodding.

She hurt all over, couldn't he just leave her _alone _to sleep so she could forget her pain?

Apparently not.

"_Stop!_" she cried, her eyes finally snapping open, hands grasping her antagonist's wrists.

Only, her breath was taken away by the deep pools of onyx staring into her chocolate orbs.

"Hey! You're awake! I thought you were dead!"

Her head was pounding and she felt a little strange. "Where…where am I?"

Amusement and concern were shining in those dark eyes that she could get lost in. "You're on Earthland. You must have hit your head pretty hard when you fell. Maybe I should take you to a doctor…"

Lucy froze.

"Earth…land?"

* * *

**end notes: **So apparently 'snuck' isn't a real word. I don't care. 'Sneaked' sounded weird. If people are stupid enough to add 'selfie' and 'twerk' to the dictionary, they might as well add some words we could actually _use. _The intro is stupid, I know, I know. I couldn't think of anything else and I didn't just want to go into the story in the beginning. I should have. I'm sorry. Also, I apologize to other Sherlock fans for the title of this chapter. Series three is coming out in a little over a month, let's get crazy. I'm snowed in, so I'm gonna go build a blanket and cushion fort in our living room and cuddle under blankets and watch The Dark Knight while I eat leftover garlic bread from yesterday's lunch. Mmm, garlic bread.  
**support the author: **Review and you'll forever be a cool kid in my eyes.

**- Sonata **


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